English speaking AA help available
Alcoholics Anonymous has branches all over France with open and closed meetings.
ENGLISH Speaking Alcoholics Anonymous groups are available to those who are looking for help with a drinking problem throughout the country.
The association officially describes itself as “a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.”
It adds that the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are two types of meeting, called open and closed. Open meetings mean that anyone can attend, so that family and friends of sufferers can accompany the person looking for help.
Closed meetings can only be attended by sufferers themselves. New members do not have to talk about their experiences.
An American who attends a group in the south of France said: “AA meetings are the nicest places with the nicest people and consequently anyone new is treated like visiting royalty.
“There is no pressure to speak and we usually have a topic or someone gives ‘a share’, after which we discuss what was said in the light of our own experience.”
AA is a world-wide voluntary organisation and many English language branches exist in Paris and around France. According to one member of a group in the Lot, this network of English-speaking groups has changed many people's lives.
He said: "In many cases, knowing there is an English speaking meeting has been a decisive factor in their willingness and ability to come and live in France - or for that matter to remain, if they have become sober here. I can't overstress how important it has been.
“At least three of the members of our group would not have come to France or stayed without the support of AA being present in their language. Only a few of us are sufficiently bi-lingual to feel comfortable, long-term, with French speaking meetings only. That is no reflection on the quality of French AA."
Visit www.aa-europe.net
